VESD eyes $2.15M purchase for new district office

VICTORVILLE • The Victor Elementary School District is eyeing a $2.15 million property purchase for a new district office.

Wednesday night the district Board of Trustees will vote on buying a 30,000-square-foot building on Second Avenue next to Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville.

The former county building is set to be purchased from a pot of $7 million in redevelopment funds the school district has saved over the past decade. The RDA revenue can only be spent on capital projects, so it can't go toward payroll or student programs, said Jan Gonzales, assistant superintendent of administrative services. The expenditure would not impact the district's general fund or reserves.

Officials say the district has outgrown its 12,000-square-foot building near 8th and C streets in Old Town Victorville, which has housed the main district office for some 26 years, according to Dale Etter, director of facilities. A larger space could enable the district to consolidate departments now spread out over various buildings, including the educational services, nutrition services and technology departments.

Aside from the current building's size, Gonzales said there have been concerns over employee safety and possible contamination at the site, which neighbors the empty lot that was formerly Nuway dry cleaners. Environmental Protection Agency crews worked to cleanup that site in 2010 after finding it had a high concentration of toxic chemicals, with trace amounts in the district office basement. Tests have since concluded the district office is safe, but employees continue to be apprehensive about working there, Gonzales said.

The district began saving for a new district office several years ago after the city of Victorville indicated interest in the property, as part of the city's plan to redevelop Old Town with a mix of commercial and residential buildings.

The district previously purchased about 17 acres of land across from its transportation building on Locust Avenue near Bear Valley Road to build an entirely a new district office, paying $4.3 million for the land and expecting to spend $18 million on construction. That land can instead be set aside to house a future school, Gonzales said.

It's estimated to cost another $5 million to remodel the proposed $2.15 million property purchase on Second Avenue. But Gonzales said officials would hold off the remodel until they get a better picture of the state budget. If Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative fails in November, the VESD is poised to lose another $4 million of its $72 million budget.

The property purchase is up for approval at the meeting that begins 7 p.m. Wednesday at Galileo Academy, 17000 Silica Road in Victorville. View the agenda online at http://pma.vesd.net.

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at NLindstrom@VVDailyPress.com.

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